Saturday, June 3, 2017

ISIS statements claiming deadly attack by a lone jihadist, Abul Al-Kahir al-Arkhabili, on Resorts World Manila on Friday, June 2, 2017.While Philippine authorities were scrambling to identify the foreigner who stormed a casino inside the Resorts World Manila that left at least 36 people, the Islamic State has for the second time claimed responsibility for the attack and even identified the lone gunman by his nom de guerre as Abul Al-Kahir al-Arkhabili.

It said the daring attack was carried out by one of its jihadists who later shot himself in the head in one of the hotel rooms after setting fire gambling tables and carpets that suffocated the victims.

The Islamic State, in a statement released through its Amaq News Agency, said: “With God’s help, our brother Abul Khayr al-Arkhabili managed to hide with his machine gun among a group of Christians, who fight Islam, inside a Resorts World resort in Manila, Philippines, where he opened fire on them, killing and injuring about 100 of them, until he, eventually, died as a martyr.”

Friday’s attack sent heavily-armed policemen to the hotel, but failed to capture the gunman, who moved from one floor to another while setting everything on fire and virtually trapping many people. Among those who died were 22 guests and the rest hotel employees.

The employees were also named as Hazel Yangco, Jellah Ramos, Melvin Herrera, Arvi Gavino, BJ Pagsibigan, Rojie Uy, Jessica Alindogan, Merylle Gwen Ala, Lea Grace Mozo, Loudette Santos, Kay Nuguerra and two more who are still unidentified. Reilly said there was only one gunman and that hotel security shot and wounded the attacker.

The Philippines police chief Ronald dela Rosa and Oscar Albayalde, police chief of the National Capital Region, said the ISIS claim of responsibility for the casino attack was a mere propaganda. Television news pictures showed the attacker brandishing an automatic rifle and wearing a black bonnet and a jacket and carrying a back pack. It was unknown how the man managed to sneak the weapon into the casino.

The attack coincided with heavy fighting between military and ISIS forces in Marawi City in southern Philippines. It was unknown whether the hotel attack was connected to the siege in Marawi.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism monitor, said an Islamic State-linked Filipino operative who provides daily updates on the ongoing clashes in Marawi, claimed that “lone wolf soldiers” of the Islamic State group were responsible for the attack at Resorts World Manila.

An English message by the operative was distributed across several pro-IS Telegram chat groups, SITE said. According to SITE, he wrote: “The lone wolf soldiers of Khilafah attack the heart of Kufar the city of Manila in Resort World.”

The Islamic State has previously called on its supporters to go to Mindanao and fight alongside local jihadists if they cannot go to Syria and Iraq, and for lone attackers to use whatever weapons they can get to kill as many infidels as they could. President Rodrigo Duterte sent thousands of soldiers, backed by military planes and tanks, to Marawi City to end the siege by about 500 local ISIS fighters.

The military said troops had killed at least 120 militants, however, only recovered 42 bodies of jihadists, including 98 assorted weapons, from an automatic rifle to machine guns, left behind by the ISIS fighters, mostly members of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups. But 38 soldiers also perished in the violence with dozens more injured in fierce urban and close-quarter clashes.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao region to crush the rebellion in Marawi which started on May 23, but fighting between troops and jihadists were also reported in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu and communist rebels take advantage of the violence by launching attacks on military and government targets elsewhere in the country.